GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



OF AMERICA 



DEVOTED TO THE SCIENCE OF FLORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE 



ADOPTED AS THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF 



THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GARDENERS 



Vol. X\'I. 



AIARCH, 1913 



Xo. 



IN THE BEGINNING the Lord created a garden Eastward, in Eden. Small wonder, then, that gardens have fascinated mankind 

 all down the ages. One might almcst trace the history of the race in its flowers. 



Flower-growing has been the recreation of civilized people in all lands, and it is our good fortune in this country and in 

 this day to And assembled for us the choicest offerings of Europe, Asia and the islands of the sea. We can grow the stately iris of 

 Japan in the same garden with the gay tulips of Holland and alongside the chaste lilies of Bermuda. 



Plant hunters are searching the ends of the earth for strange new sorts, while the plant wizards are developing the modest, old- ' 

 time favoiites into wonderful new forms. Fortunes untold are being spent to bring to your door and into your gardens, the rarest 

 creations of plant life. Never before was it possible to revel in floral luxury as today. 



But there is small satisfaction in the mere multiplicity of amazing bloom. The only way really to enjoy a garden now, as of 

 old, is to get on intimate terms with the denizens thereof — the birds, the flowers and the butterflies — to know them by name, to 

 pet them and love them and make them a part of your life. Then the garden breathes its secrets, and you learn that plants and 

 flowers and trees are living things — your boon companions and your friends. 



EDWARD I. FARHINGTON, 



The Cultivation of Flowers 



By Dr. W. S. Whitmore 



It is not within the province of man to embrace all the 

 significance of my subject, and I merely touch upon the 

 possibilities when I briefly present my sketch. It is a 

 theme that has made man famous in poetry and song ; has 

 placed artists upon the highest pedestals of fame ; has 

 brought joy and sunshine into myriads of lives and house- 

 holds, and will go on, like the brook, forever. The culti- 

 vation of flowers was among the first arts. When God 

 created the garden of Eden, He became perforce the first 

 gardener. He filled it with beautiful flowers, that it 

 might be both a delight and joy to our first parents. 



Of their kind and character. Biblical history gives us 

 no knowledge, so we are obliged to turn to mythology 

 for our information and description. It is said that the 

 trailing arbutus was the richest in beauty, foliage and 

 fragrance, of all the floral kingdom. It was styled the 

 flower of Eden, by reason of its attributes, and was Eve's 

 favorite. When desolation was visited upon the garden 

 and Eve was banished therefrom, the little arbutus elected 

 to go with her. The Lord in punishment robbed it of its 

 beautiful foliage, but by reason of its attachment and loy- 

 alty to Eve. allowed it to retain its fragrance. Its com- 

 panion was what we now know as the night-blooming 

 Cereus. which was relegated to Adam, and was his favor- 

 ite. The same condemnation was visited upon it, and in 

 addition to the loss of its beautiful foliage, the Lord 

 decreed that it should never raise its head or bloom in the 

 sunlight again, and so on through all the vocabulary, each 

 flower of Eden has its mythological history, and though 

 but fiction, is suggestive of beautiful thoughts and asso- 

 ciation*. 



In the cultivation of flowers, the elements which are 

 stored away in the recesses of the seed are brought into 

 activity by man's agency, enabling the light to act upon 

 them and delight the eye. They have the colors given 

 them by nature. They are beauties of her majestic boun- 

 ty. Man's genius, acting through a perfect understand- 

 ing of nature's laws, has afforded us the wonderful crea- 

 tions of the floral kingdom ; the marvelous colors and 

 combination that delight the eye and make the gardens 

 and the homes veritable heavens upon earth. Nature's 

 best efiforts in the growing of flowers are so cleverly 

 improved upon by the artist gardener, that art can be 

 what it is, because the gardener is what he is. 



Who can express the joy of coloring as produced by 

 the gardener? The gleams in the brooklet; the shimmer 

 in the sunbeams ; the mellow softness in the morning mist ; 

 the flash of color in the song-bird's throat; the depth of 

 tone in the ivy leaf ; the sheen of silver phosphorescence 

 of the tropic seas, and the cold gray of the October morn- 

 ing, these and every shade of color are known to the ex- 

 pert florist. They make harmony of color a life study, 

 and are truly learned in the crossing and hybridizing of 

 plants and flowers. 



All lovers of nature are born for the loving of flowers 

 and only require the encouragement of the gardener's 

 masterwork to develop their latent gift, and direct their 

 work toward beautifying the home, improving their 

 knowledge and love of flowers, and stimulating the effort 

 of the gardener to nobler and greater productions. This 

 innate talent intelligently directed and assisted by the true 

 gardener, is what will make them better fitted to dissem- 



